New Paintings

At 2260 Oak Bay Avenue

September 6 - 24, 2011

Opening Reception
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 
1PM-5 PM

Abe Murley in attendance.
Elizabeth Ely, harpist; Karel Roessingh, pianist

Abe Murley is a young artist living and working in Victoria B.C. and has been making art all his life.  Encouraged by teachers at every stage Abe completed a BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and studied at the Art Students League in New York City.  Abe considers his independent explorations to be at least as important as his academic training: attending museums and galleries throughout North America, travelling and meditating in India, studying his intimates and his environment.  Hardly a naive artist, Abe’s work in paint, drawing and printmaking media refers to realist traditions but is not confined by them.

"...as auspicious a beginning as I have ever seen...

Whether he is painting winsome young girls or the seasoned glare of a wrinkled old gent, Murley is attuned to the human condition.

His slightly cut-up paintings have a jiggly, jarring up-tempo composition, which keeps the viewer guessing. Murley draws our gaze to the background, and then to the foreground, and from side to side. Each facet is in focus, and as we look from one to the next, an element of time enters our perceptions, creating a sense of immediacy.

For all his intensity, Murley is calm, sincere and sympathetic to what it is like to be alive today. His purpose is not to judge, but to paint.

These are narratives of our moment, which in the future may become as historically interesting as Hogarth's prints or Edward Hopper's urban scenes."

Robert Amos
Times Colonist, Saturday, May 15, 2010